St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-30
A Secret Meeting Held Last
Night to Arrive at Some ~
Understanding.
At Some Places the Men Are
Returning to Work, But
Will Quit if Ordered. tn
Grand Master PoWderly Said
to Be in ignorance Of the . !.
Situation. So

the territory covered by the cOmpanyS
tracks. met here tonight in special con-
vention to take into consideration their.
relations with the company. The coal
regions sent the largest delega-
ton of nearly 100 men. The
meeting was secret one. The
first two hours were taken up in hear
ing reports from all the assembly dis
tricts. The burden of those from the
coal regions was that the miners had
grievances: that they considered them
selves entitled to continuance of the
8per cent increase and that they Ghe
miners) would be bound by the action
of the convention. The major
ity of the delegates present
seemed to think that the strike
OH the railroad was for the most part
over, and that the convention should
devote itself to doing the best it could
for the miners, unless the men in this
city should reconsider their former
action not to strike. At midnight the
convention is still in session without
having taken definite action Oh any
subject. The indications are that
strike in the Schuylkill mining region
will be ordered.
GEORGE W. CHILDS AS ARBITRATOR.
PoTTsvILLE, Pa. Dec. 29.-The Min
ers' Journal will say: ut has already
been stated that a proposition was
made to President Corbin to offer joint
committee of the X. of l.. and
the Miners and Laborers' Anal
gamatee association as arbitrator of
the cause of the railroaders. This pro-
posal has been so far successful as to
loo 70 nrnf To Ctrl M IccII IN
arbitrator, to be composed of one rep
resentative of the railroad company, one
of the miners and a third to be selected
by the two named. A meeting of
the committee was held here to-
day, and it received cordial as
sent. The selection of the third arbi
TRAITOR was also talked over, and the SEN
timent was in favor of George w.
Childs, of Philadelphia. 1t is not
known that the question pertaining to
the miners will be brought up during
this arbitration.
PowDERLY KNOWS LITTLE OF 1T. {,
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. ga special
from Scranton to the Press says GEN
eral Master Workman POwderly knows
very little about the Reading strike.
The only information that he has con
corning it is that it had been declared
off and had then been renewed. In COM
pliance with the orders of his physician
the members of his household have been
careful not to bring to his attention any
matters that might induce him to I'M
dertake any labor, and for that reason
he has not been acquainted with tile
particulars of the trouble on the Reading
system. Mr.. POwderly is not aware of
any mOmentous action by the general
executive board of the Knights of Labor
since his illness began three weeks ago,
and he has not taken occasion upon
any instance to advise his colleagues to
any action. The general master work
man has been making rapid progress
toward recovery, but was not feeling as
well to-day as earlier in the week, the
change in the weather giving him
slight setback. He is able, however,
to be down stairs, but is admOniShed by
his physician to keep quiet and do no
work.
RETURNING TO WORK.
POTTsvII.LE, Pa, Dec. 29.-Palo Alto
officials say that fifty Knights of Labor
men, old employees, returned voluntarily
to work to-day, and that the force is
rapidly filling up with new and old
hands. Nine out of sixteen local coal
engines worked to-day for the first time
since the strike began. Every depart
ment of the railroad, including
branches, planes. shops, etc,
were working. The only point
north of Reading where there
seems to be any hitch is at PalO Alto
and Shamokin. The Mine Hill branch
has every engine out on the road, work.
ing as is nothing had happened. Since
| Tuesday morning up to 10 O'Clock to-day
| they had dispatched eighteen coal and
| four freight trains down the main line.
besides operating their own division.
Dispatchers furnished quite number
| of crews for work outside their
territory. There was little diver
sion at the Schuylkill Haven
| crossing this morning, when
| six shifting engine men tried to get up
a strike, but were Summarily dis
charged and their places filled at once.
| At Gordon Planes and Pine Grove, mat
tiers were going along smooth. Tama-
| qua men all continue at work. The
force at Mahanoy Plane was very much
increased to-day, and it easily handled
the light and loaded cars furnished by
the Planes. AT Franckville the engines
are busily engaged lifting the
blockade at Head Planes, also supplying
collieries at the st. Clair district
| with ears. At ShamOkin matters are
| pretty much at standstill. FreightS
and passengers are all running. The
| first coal train went west yesterday
and it was expected that five more
would be sent out to-day. Officials
are making no special effort
| to operate lines west. The strik-
! ers have this end of the line
very we'll in hand, and are peaceable,
but keeping new hands out. The min
ers' leaders can only carry about so per
cent of the miners with them at most.
Representatives called on Supt. Verth
! this afternoon. He said, Il don't be-
lieve the miners will strike even if Of
dered by the miners union leaders.
| Our wOrkingmen have too much good
| sense to engage i'll what would SOurely
be failure if they go out"
THE SITUATION AT READING. s.
| READING, Penn, Dec.-29.-NOtwith-
standing the efforts that were made dur
ing the past twenty-fOur hours to in
duce the employees of the Philadelphia
& Reading Railroad company in this
city to go on a strike, all remained at
their posts to-day and everything is
| quiet. Traffic is proceeding as usual,
| although there has been fewer
trains down to-day than yesterday.
This is due to the reported blockade of
the tracks at Richmond Junction and
other points down the road. Although
various orders have been issued since
yesterday, and several walking dele
gates, who arrived here last evening,
have been operating among the knights,
none of the men have left their places,
and it is stated that none will. A lead
ing knight said: 1--WE are awaiting an
official report to see how matters stand
l don't think that the men in and
around Reading will obey any order to
the proper source and from the proper
! authorities. l mean by that that only
an order from the national executive
board of the Knights of Labor will be
respected. There are some hot headed